During the forum – where the candidates appeared separately – Trump suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a better leader than President Obama. “But certainly in that system he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader”.
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Furthermore, Trump expressed praise for Putin’s strong – human rights monitors say authoritarian – leadership in Russian Federation, positing the former KGB operative turned world leader was doing quite well for himself.
The forum hosted by NBC brought Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clintontogether just weeks before they square off at the first presidential debate on September 26.
Trump on Wednesday renewed his praise of Putin for having “great control over his country”.
The Republican candidate said that Hillary Clinton had been in power for last thirty years and she failed to change anything and that now the people of America needed change very quickly.
Clinton said none of the emails she sent or received were marked top secret, secret or classified, the usual way such material is identified.
She has faced criticism and investigations for her use of a private email system while serving as secretary of state during Obama’s first term. Trump also called to demand a plan to beat the Islamic State (IS) group if he becomes president.
Most national polls show a tight race with Clinton in the lead as the USA presidential race enters its home stretch with just nine weeks until the November 8 election.
She did, however, say that “we’ve got to do it with much more support for the Arabs and the Kurds who will fight on the ground against ISIS”, and plans on including those troops as part of a larger global operation.
The BBC noted on its online coverage of Trump’s remarks at the forum that his praise of Putin, in contrast with Obama’s performance in office, “came on the same day the chief of the Pentagon accused Russian Federation of sowing the seeds of global instability”.
Trump followed up his Virginia event by meeting with the wives of USA military personnel stationed at nearby installations. “Their report answered all the questions”, she said.
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Taking questions from reporters for more than 20 minutes on her campaign plane, Clinton said both Democrats and Republicans should be concerned about Russia’s behavior. As if to clarify what Mr. Rhodes meant about the United States “working with Russia” against the terrorists, Toner said that it could mean joint airstrikes.
